Rail-drier device



Patented Sept. 15, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLINTON N. BRYAN AND RICHARD G. RENOUD, F DUNSMUIR, CALIFORNIA.

RAIL-DRIER DEVICE.

Application led January 29, 1924. Serial No. 689,335.

l- To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that we, CLINTON N. BRYAN and RICHARD Cr. RENOUD, citizens of the United States, residing at Dunsmuir, in the county of Siskiyou and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Rail-Driel1 Devices, of which the following is a specilication.

This invention relates to means for ing rails of railroad tracks,

ject of the invention being to for forcing a stream of air rail to drive the moisture from the same and thus prevent slipping of the` wheels thereon.

Another object of the invention is to provide a detlector in front of the air means for preventing the wheelsof the pony truck from throwing water upon the rails in rear of the same.

This invention also consists in :certain other features' of construction and in the combination and arrangement of the several parts, to be hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying` drawings and specilically pointed out in the appended claim.

In describing' the invention in detail, reference will be had to the accompanying drawings wherein like characters denote 30 like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and in which Figure l is an elevation of a locomotive showing the invention in use.

Figure 2 is an end view.

Figure 3 is a view of the parts in the cab, the cab being shown in dotted lines.

Figure l is a view of the nozzle.

Figure 5 is a view of the lower portion of one of the defiector plates.

In these views, A indicates the rails of the track and B a locomotive, the wheels of which engage the rails. As is well known when the rails are wet the wheels are apt to spin thereon so that the locomotive will 45 not pull as heavy a load as it will when the rails are dry. It is common practice to use sand on wet rails to increase the tractive power of the locomotive but the use of this sand adds to the maintenance cost and it damages the wheels and the rails. It is the object of our invention to dry the rails by the use of an air blast and in carrying` out our invention we connect a pipe l with the air supply of the locomotive which is prodrythe general obprovide means against each operated upon by vided with a valve 2 for controlling the passage of air therethrough. This pipe is provided with the branches 3 and 3, one of which extends to a point in front of the first drive wheel 4 and in rear of the pony truck wheel 5 on one side of the locomotive and the other passes over the boiler to a similar point on the other side of the locomotive. A nozzle 6 is connected with the lower end of each branch pipe and these nozzles are so arranged as to direct the air upon the rails to dry the same and thus provide dry rail surfaces for the drive wheels of the locomotive to engage.

In order to prevent the pony truck wheels 5 from throwing water upon the rails being the air blast we provide a deflector plate 7 which depends from the bottom of the boiler in front of the branch pipes 3 and in rear of the wheels 5 'for catching the water thrown by these wheels 5. The bottom of the plate is turned upwardly to provide a gutter 8 for leading the water away from the rails.

d From the foregoing it will be seen that the invention provides means for keeping the rails dry in front of the drive wheels of the locomotive so as to do away with the necessity of using sand, thus reducing the maintenance cost and increasing the pulling power of the locomotive.

It is thought from the foregoing tion that the advantages and novel of the invention will be readily apparent.

IVe desire it to be understood that we may make changes in the construction and in the combination and arrangement of the several parts, provided that such changes fall within the scope of the appended claim.

Vhat we claim is z- In combination with a locomotive, pipes connected with the air supply thereof, nozzles connected with the pipes for directing the air upon the-rails to dry the same, said nozzles being arranged in front of the drive wheels and a delector plate arranged in front of the nozzles and behind the truck wheels for preventing said wheels from throwing water upon the dried portion of the rails. y

In testimony whereof we aix our signatures.

descripfeatures CLINTON RICHARD 

